Mark Tavlarides

Mark Tavlarides is a Principal in the firm’s International Practice.  He is a lifelong Washingtonian who started his career as an intern on Capitol Hill and has accumulated over four decades of experience working in Congress, the Executive Branch and as a lobbyist.  He is bipartisan in his approach to problem solving and achieving a client’s goals.

Mark joined BGR after years of advocating on behalf of nonprofits, sovereign governments and corporations. Mark takes a comprehensive approach to client management but always puts the well-being of clients above politics. He obtained funding for a major malaria program that saved thousands of lives on behalf of a public private partnership and successfully removed language from national security legislation that would have prohibited funding to a strategic partner of the United States.

Prior to joining the private sector, Mark served as director of Legislative Affairs for the National Security Council, where President Bill Clinton tapped Mark’s expertise in leading efforts to generate congressional support for the president’s national security strategy.

Mark joined the White House from the Office of the Secretary of Defense, where he served in the Legislative Affairs Bureau as the Senior Special Assistant for International Security Affairs. He previously spent 10 years serving on the House Foreign Affairs Committee’s Subcommittee on Human Rights and International Organizations. As the subcommittee’s staff director, he worked to improve and strengthen U.S. relations with the United Nations and advanced foreign aid measures. Among his key accomplishments was participating in the enactment of legislation that established the Child Survival Fund, which provides life-saving interventions for children in impoverished areas of the world. Work has taken Mark all over the world, from Central America, Asia to Africa and Europe, travel that has honed Mark’s evolving worldview.

A true D.C. native, Mark was born and raised in the District and attended Washington public schools. He dreamt of being the next Willie Mays, but unfortunately couldn’t hit the curve ball. A lover of music (Earth, Wind and Fire, Rolling Stones) and travel, Mark is also devoted to his church and community. Mark received his Bachelor of Science from Towson State University.

• Congress and Foreign Affairs
• National Security Policy and Foreign Sovereign Representation

• Towson State University

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